WARWICK — Parents suing district over kid's referral

Parents suing district over kid's referral
By Matt King

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbc...NEWS/712200346

Times Herald-Record
December 20, 2007

WARWICK — The parents of a teenager referred to Child Protective
Services because educators believed he was suicidal are suing the
Warwick Valley School District.

In a federal claim, Everett Cox III, a former Warwick school board
member, and Nan Ping Peng allege school officials violated their due
process rights and their son's privacy rights. They want the district to
pay for a private school.

"There's a level of recklessness here," said the parents' Goshen lawyer,
Michael Sussman. "A kid has the right to speak out in response to a
school assignment without a fear of his family being destroyed."

Sussman has had a string of legal victories suing school districts over
due process violations. But those have been over suspensions from school
or sports teams. This latest case gets at a more complex issue: how far
schools should go to ensure children who are talking or writing about
violence are not a danger to themselves or others.

Sussman said educators should be able to discriminate between a real
problem and a kid who's in tune with a violent popular culture, and let
parents decide what's best for a student.

But Pam Atkins, director at the Psychological Counseling Center at SUNY
New Paltz, said school counselors have a duty to be sensitive to
students' writing about violent behavior, and always err on the side of
caution.

"Parents are specialists in raising children," Atkins said. "They are
not specialists in suicide and homicide. We like to think we know our
kids but so often our worries and our feelings about children interfere
with our ability to see the truth about what's going on."

Warwick school officials declined comment. Their call to CPS came near
the end of a school year in which the student had been in a fight with
another student, been suspended for drawing on a school wall and written
at least two school assignments that included references to violent
activity, including suicide.

At the school's insistence, the student was evaluated by a psychologist
in February, after he wrote the first essay. In April, in response to an
assignment about how he would live his last 24 hours, the student wrote
about doing drugs, taking poison and shooting himself.

He submitted the assignment before the April 16, 2007, massacre at
Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., in which a disturbed student killed 33
people, including himself. After the attack, school officials called the
Child Protective Services hotline and, according to the suit, said the
student was homicidal and suicidal and his parents provided "a minimal
degree of care to their son."

The CPS psychiatrist who evaluated the student recommended a follow-up
examination and sent him home with his parents.








CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...